By JOSEPH KELLARD
Christina Rahn, a line officer and EMT with the department's Rescue Company since 2000, filed the suit on Sept. 6. Rahn's suit stems from the aftermath of a previous claim she brought against the OFD that was settled in November 2005. Rahn says she was demoted when she became pregnant in 2004, and claims that after she was reinstated a month after the settlement, members of the department embarked on a campaign of retaliation, harassment and discrimination against her.
"My client feels she's been discriminated against, harassed and retaliated against for a couple of years now, but more recently since about November 2005, which is about a month after she settled a discrimination case with the department and Rescue Company," said Rahn's attorney, Gary Viscio, a former OFD firefighter.
Rahn charges that she has been the target of public name-calling, expletives, vulgar comments and slurs, and that slanderous material about her has been posted on Internet Web sites. She claims that she reported these incidents to her company officers but they took no action, and that the department manipulated rules to remove her as an officer after she was restored to that position, all of which "created an air of harassment and danger" for Rahn, the suit states.
While it is the OFD's policy to refrain from comment on ongoing litigation, Anthony Iovino, the district's lawyer, said, "However, this lawsuit will be vigorously defended ... We believe that the charges are baseless."
Part of what the OFD will refute is Rahn's claim that in May of this year, the district suspended her for not participating in a handful of training sessions held in February. In the suit, Viscio argues that Rahn missed the sessions because she is a single mother who works full-time as a medical technician and is not always able to get a baby-sitter for her young child.
In June, during a hearing on Rahn's suspension before the OFD's Hearing Board, a three-man body appointed by the Board of Commissioners, Rahn presented letters detailing the reasons for her absence from the training sessions.
At the hearing, OFD attorneys made public a January 2006 letter from Chief Sean Lynch, in which he expressed "serious concern" about Rescue Company's neglect of training and its failure to properly respond to calls or to follow department rules and state hygiene laws. Lynch called for the Rescue Company to hold training sessions, from which charges arose against Rahn of insubordination and failure to abide by the chief¹s order.
"She wasn't even given notice of the first few training sessions," Viscio countered. " ... And these were not even considered specialized training, which is exactly what the by-laws say it has to be."
Viscio explained that the OFD's position is that no firefighter could miss calls or training sessions, but he argues that Rahn was nevertheless very active in rescue calls, and that not everyone could or does make those sessions, yet no one but Rahn has been suspended. "They're picking on this girl who actually goes to calls while Rescue [Company] lost its heavy rescue truck because they never used it, because they were boycotting and weren't going to calls," Viscio said.
Rahn's suit further charges that prior to the June hearing's verdict, she was offered a deal: The department would end the hearing and her suspension if she resigned or transferred from Rescue Company ‹ "another example of the proof of defendants seeking to remove Rahn from office and Rescue," the suit reads.
Rahn declined the deal, and her suspension continued. In August she submitted an appeal in response to the Hearing Board's decision to uphold her suspension, but she claims she did not even receive a letter of acknowledgment of the appeal. Meanwhile, a male member of South Side Hose Company who was suspended and filed an appeal after Rahn did had his appeal heard, according to Viscio. Rahn¹s suit charges that the department, including the Board of Commissioners, failed to take any action or investigate these "stalling tactics."
Rahn brought her original claim of sexual harassment against the OFD in 2004, and it was settled in November 2005, according to Viscio. "What happened was Š she got pregnant and Rescue immediately removed her from the position of first line officer," he said. "The department would not help her get back into office, so she contacted a lawyer. They settled, and she ended up getting reinstalled. Š A month later, Rescue went right back after her, had her removed again from office, and it just got worse from there."
³The district is very proud of our treatment of all of our volunteer firefighters,² said Iovino, who declined to comment on Rahn's previous claim, ³and we are confident that the district will be vindicated at the conclusion of this matter.²
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
